Christmas Number 2

I don't even know how to start this post. I will start in non-chronological order, because I'm sure you will like this picture the best:


Do you know what that box is? It's brand new carpeting. And so are the two boxes underneath it that you can't see because they are BURIED IN SNOW BECAUSE THE COURIER LEFT THEM OUTSIDE ON OUR PORCH WHILE WE WERE OUT OF TOWN OVER THE HOLIDAYS. Yes, the same courier who didn't even knock on the door last time when he was supposed to be delivering my free vacuum cleaner. He left these boxes on our porch on a Tuesday, and then there was a gigantic blizzard on Wednesday. We arrived home to find them covered in two days worth of snow on Friday. Have I mentioned that I phoned the courier company to tell them I would not be home, and that they said they were leaving a note in my file, and they would hold my packages until January 5th?

THANKS COURIERS.

I would not recommend using UPS or Same Day Right-O-Way.

Luckily the carpet company was not so stupid - in fact, they were smart about how they packaged it. After we shoveled the boxes out of the snow drift and got them into the house, we discovered that the carpet tiles themselves were not wet.

I'm sure the next pressing question is: which carpet did we pick, after all the samples and deliberation? The answer is: none of the above. We chose a carpet that we didn't have samples for. I think we got tired of over-thinking the matter. Mark saw this pattern on the website, remarked how much he liked it, and we just ordered it.

Here it is, in a big heap, with a dog on top.


It was really easy to install.


It looks great, and I don't regret not getting a sample.


So before all the carpet drama occurred, we went out of town to celebrate Christmas number 2. This occasion took place near Truro, where my parents live. My brother flew in from Ontario and my sister and her guy drove with their dog Linus! Do you guys remember Linus? He was one of our many rescue Greyhounds that we fostered, and my sister adopted him. He's awesome.


So we drove to Truro, celebrated a late Christmas with my family, and then grabbed our friend Kristie from Halifax the next day. She came back to Truro with us to hang out for New Years. Before that, we celebrated two birthdays.

The birth of baby Jesus!

No. Well, yes. But not really. I was talking about my dad, whose birthday is Christmas day, and my brother, who has his birthday on the 27th. We've always tried to keep my dad's birthday very separate from Christmas celebrations. There is ALWAYS a cake, and Christmas/birthday presents are rarely combined unless they're extra-big.

Kristie the genius brought her Wii with her, and the Christmas/New Years festivities degenerated into a pile of screaming, jumping, laughing craziness. One insane game that she brought was SUPER MONKEY BALL BANANA BLITZ. That is the real name of the game, and it sets an appropriate tone for the game itself. At one point I took a break and was hanging out with my parents upstairs, and we found ourselves simply sitting around the kitchen table, looking at each other and laughing. We were listening to the fracas in the basement, where four or five people were laughing and shrieking and accusing each other of stealing bananas. It went on for hours.


It was good times. In fact, despite the raging snowstorm which caused my dog to attempt to go on strike from using the bathroom for more than 24 hours, and despite the fact that the other dog chose a different course of action by eating things he shouldn't have and getting diarrhea, and despite the crowd of eight people and four dogs living in close proximity for three days, and despite facing the very real possibility of getting snowed in for much longer than that (we didn't), it was good times.

It was good food, good drink, good presents, a Christmas, a New Year, and two (okay three) birthdays all rolled into one three-day blitz of partying. Oh, and everyone carried Oliver all around the place the whole time.



Then we drove back to Bridgetown and found our new carpets in a pile of snow and you already know the rest.

Happy new year!